Case Study Egg
Announcement posted by Graham Technology 12 Mar 2002
"Many software houses call their customers partners but Graham Technology really means it and is true to its word" Pete Marsden, IT Director, Egg
In October 1998, Egg launched an exciting new e-commerce proposition from Prudential Bank . The objective was to give technology-literate consumers the opportunity to personalise their banking - and the end result was quite outstanding.
Under the Prudential umbrella, the company offers three distinct brands: Prudential branded products that are targeted at the insurers traditional customers; Scottish Amicable, the lead brand through independent financial advisors; and now Egg.
Egg was conceived as a direct, scalable, customer relationship business to deliver personalised consumer experiences via phone, Internet and post.
At the heart of the initial Egg project was the delivery of a 700-seat call centre facility in which Graham Technology was the prime contractor. Utilising GT-X as the cornerstone of the call centres customer management systems, this project heralded the start of a strong, on-going, commercial relationship between Egg and Graham Technology that went beyond the traditional customer/supplier model.
The Business Opportunity
Egg had anticipated signing-up 13,000 customers in the first year, through market-leading financial services products including mortgages, loans and savings accounts. The reality was that Egg recruited 150,000 customers within two months of operations, taking over 1.5bn in deposits. Egg was positioned as the fastest growing financial services company by a factor of four.
Critical to Eggs operations was the capability to have one universal view of each and every customer, driven by a robust, flexible and highly performing IT infrastructure. Egg committed to listen, learn from and respond to customers needs with tailored financial solutions and required technology partners that would have the same commitment to respond and deliver superior functionality.
"It would almost be like dancing. If the customer wants to do the waltz, the system will do the waltz. If the customer wants tango, itll tango.
Tom Ilube, Program Manager, Egg.
Egg conducted significant research on many of the worlds leading CRM solutions. GT-X stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of functionality, track record, pricing and technological fit. Cultural synergy also played a key role in the decision to deploy GT-X as the framework for the call centre solution.
We decided on GT-X because it allowed us to migrate to a flexible architecture that would enable us to meet and indeed exceed, our needs now and in the future. We needed a real partnership rather than a traditional customer/supplier model. As well as the capabilities of the software, the selection of Graham Technology was influenced by the cultural similarity between our two organisations."
Pete Marsden, IT Director, Egg.
Graham Technology was on-site within two months.
The Business Solution
Egg needed flexibility, speed of development and proven scalability and robustness. Its existing call centre systems were not designed for this new environment and would have been too difficult to adapt. GT-X was chosen as the new call centre solution with Sun Microsystems the hardware of choice and TopEnd to provide a new middleware layer.
Graham Technologys dynamic RAD (Rapid Application Development) approach to projects was viewed as critical to the successful delivery of Egg. As product offerings were still being changed five months into the project, the company was defining business processes as Graham Technology was building the customer management systems. This meant that business processes had to constantly be modified with design and development work being carried out until the Egg data model was finalised mid-implementation.
GT-Xs flexibility was key in allowing changes to be made as processes were introduced and amended. Their expertise and professionalism have been priceless assets.
Pete Marsden, IT Director, Egg.
Project Management and Co-ordination
The project team combined Graham Technology, Egg and Kainos. The result was the successful launch of Eggs call centre facility based on GT-X customer management systems that were developed from scratch in 20 weeks. The telephony struggled to cope with the over-subscription and approached switchboard meltdown but G T-X did not fail despite the massive volume.
"We built a call centre in less time than many organisations Ive worked with would take to sign-off a proposal. Graham Technology has proved itself not only an excellent technology partner, but an irreplaceable business partner, with as much commitment to our business targets as we have,"
Pete Marsden, IT Director, Egg.
The number of customer applications received at the launch of Egg far surpassed expectations, with the level of resource needed to process the forms seeming impossible to sustain. However, within two weeks, Graham Technology had built a rapid application capture process, specifically designed to streamline data entry.
Shortly after, Graham Technology built a transaction-capture process. Despite the incredibly complex integration required, these processes were deployed real-time to allow financial transactions to happen on the desktop - a first for Prudential Bank. New processes were developed to cope with the unexpectedly high volume of calls, many existing processes were amended and all changes were made without any down-time.
The On-Going Partnership
Graham Technologys commitment to and focus on business processes transformed the way in which Egg managed its customers experience successfully.
Egg views GT-X as being key its success. Graham Technology continues to work with Prudential Bank and Egg to develop as well as improve the quality and efficiency of its direct customer offering. The relationship has matured to the point where Egg is now self-sufficient in developing and modifying their GT-X applications to support their ever-changing business environment.
As a result of the success of this implementation, ongoing collaboration between Graham Technology and Egg is underway. Through GT-X, the new Boots / Egg credit card is giving Egg a competitive edge and allowing it to differentiate itself on exceptional customer service in a commoditised market space. On-site application development of GT-X and ongoing consultative assistance are a regular part of the Egg agenda.
Under the Prudential umbrella, the company offers three distinct brands: Prudential branded products that are targeted at the insurers traditional customers; Scottish Amicable, the lead brand through independent financial advisors; and now Egg.
Egg was conceived as a direct, scalable, customer relationship business to deliver personalised consumer experiences via phone, Internet and post.
At the heart of the initial Egg project was the delivery of a 700-seat call centre facility in which Graham Technology was the prime contractor. Utilising GT-X as the cornerstone of the call centres customer management systems, this project heralded the start of a strong, on-going, commercial relationship between Egg and Graham Technology that went beyond the traditional customer/supplier model.
The Business Opportunity
Egg had anticipated signing-up 13,000 customers in the first year, through market-leading financial services products including mortgages, loans and savings accounts. The reality was that Egg recruited 150,000 customers within two months of operations, taking over 1.5bn in deposits. Egg was positioned as the fastest growing financial services company by a factor of four.
Critical to Eggs operations was the capability to have one universal view of each and every customer, driven by a robust, flexible and highly performing IT infrastructure. Egg committed to listen, learn from and respond to customers needs with tailored financial solutions and required technology partners that would have the same commitment to respond and deliver superior functionality.
"It would almost be like dancing. If the customer wants to do the waltz, the system will do the waltz. If the customer wants tango, itll tango.
Tom Ilube, Program Manager, Egg.
Egg conducted significant research on many of the worlds leading CRM solutions. GT-X stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of functionality, track record, pricing and technological fit. Cultural synergy also played a key role in the decision to deploy GT-X as the framework for the call centre solution.
We decided on GT-X because it allowed us to migrate to a flexible architecture that would enable us to meet and indeed exceed, our needs now and in the future. We needed a real partnership rather than a traditional customer/supplier model. As well as the capabilities of the software, the selection of Graham Technology was influenced by the cultural similarity between our two organisations."
Pete Marsden, IT Director, Egg.
Graham Technology was on-site within two months.
The Business Solution
Egg needed flexibility, speed of development and proven scalability and robustness. Its existing call centre systems were not designed for this new environment and would have been too difficult to adapt. GT-X was chosen as the new call centre solution with Sun Microsystems the hardware of choice and TopEnd to provide a new middleware layer.
Graham Technologys dynamic RAD (Rapid Application Development) approach to projects was viewed as critical to the successful delivery of Egg. As product offerings were still being changed five months into the project, the company was defining business processes as Graham Technology was building the customer management systems. This meant that business processes had to constantly be modified with design and development work being carried out until the Egg data model was finalised mid-implementation.
GT-Xs flexibility was key in allowing changes to be made as processes were introduced and amended. Their expertise and professionalism have been priceless assets.
Pete Marsden, IT Director, Egg.
Project Management and Co-ordination
The project team combined Graham Technology, Egg and Kainos. The result was the successful launch of Eggs call centre facility based on GT-X customer management systems that were developed from scratch in 20 weeks. The telephony struggled to cope with the over-subscription and approached switchboard meltdown but G T-X did not fail despite the massive volume.
"We built a call centre in less time than many organisations Ive worked with would take to sign-off a proposal. Graham Technology has proved itself not only an excellent technology partner, but an irreplaceable business partner, with as much commitment to our business targets as we have,"
Pete Marsden, IT Director, Egg.
The number of customer applications received at the launch of Egg far surpassed expectations, with the level of resource needed to process the forms seeming impossible to sustain. However, within two weeks, Graham Technology had built a rapid application capture process, specifically designed to streamline data entry.
Shortly after, Graham Technology built a transaction-capture process. Despite the incredibly complex integration required, these processes were deployed real-time to allow financial transactions to happen on the desktop - a first for Prudential Bank. New processes were developed to cope with the unexpectedly high volume of calls, many existing processes were amended and all changes were made without any down-time.
The On-Going Partnership
Graham Technologys commitment to and focus on business processes transformed the way in which Egg managed its customers experience successfully.
Egg views GT-X as being key its success. Graham Technology continues to work with Prudential Bank and Egg to develop as well as improve the quality and efficiency of its direct customer offering. The relationship has matured to the point where Egg is now self-sufficient in developing and modifying their GT-X applications to support their ever-changing business environment.
As a result of the success of this implementation, ongoing collaboration between Graham Technology and Egg is underway. Through GT-X, the new Boots / Egg credit card is giving Egg a competitive edge and allowing it to differentiate itself on exceptional customer service in a commoditised market space. On-site application development of GT-X and ongoing consultative assistance are a regular part of the Egg agenda.